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May 31,2013

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"Shh: NY Catholic Church Quietly Paying for Birth Control, Abortions," Tracie Egan Morrissey, Jezebel: Although the "New York Archdiocese is suing the federal government to stop the mandate that employer-paid insurance policies must cover birth control ... it turns out the Archdiocese of [New York] has been quietly paying for such coverage -- even abortions -- for over a decade," Morrissey writes. She adds, "[T]he way its health care is set up now, the church's funds are much more involved in providing contraception than if it just accepted the terms offered by Obamacare" (Egan Morrissey, Jezebel, 5/28).

"ACLU Challenges Arizona's Race and Sex Selection Abortion Ban," Jessica Mason Pieklo, RH Reality Check: The American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona on Wednesday filed a lawsuit seeking to permanently block an Arizona law that bans abortions based on the race or sex of the fetus, Mason Pieklo writes, adding that suit argues that the measure "relies on harmful racial stereotypes to shame and discriminate against Black women and Asian and Pacific Islander (API) women who decide to end their pregnancies." Alexa Kolbi-Molinas -- attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project and lead lawyer in the lawsuit -- said, "This law takes the personal and private health care decisions of women of color and exploits them for political gain," adding that the "Constitution flatly prohibits states from passing laws based on racist stereotypes." Mason Pieklo notes that "during the law's passage, supporters cited higher rates of abortion among Black women as evidence that Black women either were motivated by a discriminatory intent to prevent the birth of Black children, or were being duped into having abortions as part of a racist plot" (Mason Pieklo, RH Reality Check, 5/29).

Video Round Up

An Interview with Justice Ginsburg on the State of Abortion Access

In a rare interview, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg tells MSNBC's Irin Carmon it is a "crying shame" that state abortion restrictions are making the procedure increasingly "[i]naccessible" to many low-income women. Watch the video

Datapoints

A Look at Abortion Coverage in the ACA's Marketplace Plans, Repro Health Report Card, More

This week's charts depict why abortion coverage is unavailable in many states' ACA marketplace plans for 2015. We also feature a national reproductive health report card and an interactive look at abortion restrictions in Missouri. Read more

At A Glance

"[Roe v. Wade] protects a woman's freedom to make her own choices about her body and her health, and reaffirms a fundamental American value: that government should not intrude in our most private and personal family matters."

— President Obama, commemorating the 42nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Read more